Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Guppysnail]

On 6/30/2022 at 9:02 PM, Katherine said:

Any reason to take the seeds out? My mysteries ate them.

I take them out because I have bn plecos and bn pleco babies. I suspect I lost one of the babies because it ate a seed. Overnight it’s belly went from fine to looking like it swallowed a marble. There was no pine coning or any other symptoms other than it stopped pooping and it’s actual belly kept looking fuller and fuller. So it’s just a precaution. 

[Guppysnail]

First clutch from the new magenta babies. I’m going to let it there on the lid as conditions should be appropriate and that is their grow out tank. Let’s see if the easy way works. I like easy. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Yay! How exciting!

[CKetchum]

Is there anything cuter then baby snails?  🥰

[Guppysnail]

My first peace lily flower

My panda egg that looked close to hatching is gone. I’m hoping it hatched. I guess I’ll know if I see a panda fry in the tank. I moved Duke to the parent tank he seems like he may be just big enough to eat the a new fry. I seen him try to snag a new hatch shrimplette so I’m not chancing it.  
 

Dad is sitting eggs. I have been taking the clutches so feel it’s time to allow him to complete another hatch.  I know I love my kiddos to much. I worry I may cause psychological damage by continuously abducting his eggs 🤣

Tank updates

…no as usual I did not clean the windows before pictures…my signature move 🤪

I got 3 shrimp caves loved the way they looked with moss so ordered a few more. Should be here in a few days  and excess white glue hopefully grows under and gets hidden 😝

 

Mom n Dad

Most of the APU bulbs have gone to sleep. One is still awake. So I redid it. I put the Florida ruffle in here  

Guupy girl/pleco grow out

Magical Mystery tank (no longer under RR construction) I’m going to use the shrim caves to glue the Riccia an Xmas moss on  my snails seem to prefer it floating instead of my carpet idea 🙄 I stuck the dwarf parrot feathers in here  

Funny tank panda fry/shrimp/ plant holding messy tank The frogbit is taking off for the first time ever  🤩. I have dispersed the salvinia minima to all other tanks plus the windowsill.  It hardcore outcompeted the duckweed I put in  I still only have a few pieces of it.  The two types of bladder wort are in here in the back so they get sunlight  How weird is it that I’m fascinated with ugly fry tanks and the fauna they grow 🤷‍♀️

Pygmy tank. Guppy grass is doing amazing. It grew enough tho add to the panda tank and mom n dads tank

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panda tank added moss mountain and a moss shrimp cave

Guppy/Angel and lefty 

The guppy grass I just got at the club swap I hit 5 hours with Reverse Respiration since I was only killing potential hitchhikers. It looks great to the naked eye. I was to lazy to scope it 🤣The lily bulbs went to sleep. The APL is slowly going to sleep.  The shrimp have piked and picked at the Riccia. Most is floating it’s not grabbing hold fast enough. Tiny terrorists struck again.  Once it off I’m going to go with something else. I need a bushy moss that grabs on quick.  I need to thank @Odd Duck again. Her contagious moss addiction is insidiously infecting me. Anyone have recommendations for next moss for my Dr Seuss tree? Hard water 7.6-8 ph no co2

Snailtopia is chugging right along. The frogbit took over and killed my hornwort and most of my beautiful hair algae. So now it’s a snail and frogbit tank. 

Guppy boy grow out is now under construction with new project  no pics 😢

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW

Edited July 6, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I love the Dr. Seuss tree!  So, how many tanks total?

[Guppysnail]

On 7/6/2022 at 9:28 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I love the Dr. Seuss tree!  So, how many tanks total?

9 if you don’t count my dozens of miscellaneous unfiltered plant containers on ALL my window ledges 🤣

[Odd Duck]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:13 AM, Guppysnail said:

I need to thank @Odd Duck again. Her contagious moss addiction is insidiously infecting me

You’re very welcome.  Welcome to the dark side of moss.  I don’t think there are mosses that grab on quick and still hold well.  They either grab quick and don’t hold long term or they grab slow and strong and hold well long term.  You might try Hooker’s moss, Physcomitrium hookeri.  It’s gorgeous, develops a central strand that has some maroony brown with dark green “leaves”.  It grabs good and has a moderate grown rate for moss.  I would cut the strands into fairly short pieces for gluing on so you get new growth from each end of the pieces for more dense overall growth.

Another good one with very similar structure but green central strands is Distichophyllum maibarae.  It has similar “grip” time and growth rate and I treat it exactly the same as hookeri moss.  It still gives a very dense look to,each strand but with no brown/maroon tinge. Cameroon moss (Plagiochilaceae sp. ‘Cameroon Moss’), is gorgeous, doesn’t seem to have quite as much grip as some of the others listed, but way better than any in the Vesicularia group (Java, Christmas, etc).  It has a central strand, bigger, wider, cupped looking “leaves” and will take a beautiful weeping form with a slightly paler green than some plus it has a much more translucent quality.

The Vesics always loosen up on me, detach, and end up floating around in a cloud of green.  Which is cool, but not when you’re trying to make mossy branches or a “tree” that lasts.

Finally, there’s Jade Lotus moss, Jungermannia truncata.  Gorgeous color, pure rich, emerald green all through, central strand, rounder “leaves” that give a more rosette type impression at the end of each strand.  It has a decent grip, and growth rate.

That’s pretty much a list of my favorite mosses except the Fissidens group.  They are wonderful and grab on great, but grow much slower than the rest of these on “Sharon’s Favorite Mosses” list.

[Guppysnail]

On 7/6/2022 at 10:22 AM, Odd Duck said:

“Sharon’s Favorite Mosses” list.

todays rabbit hole will be investigating these 😍

[Minanora]

On 6/30/2022 at 3:51 AM, Guppysnail said:

 I like to make certain critters I purchase have been in store tanks for at least a week if possible

I'm the same way! Even if it means I miss out on certain fish for weeks or months at a time.

On 7/4/2022 at 4:07 PM, CKetchum said:

Is there anything cuter then baby snails?  🥰

I think it's a tie with baby shrimp. 💚

[Guppysnail]

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[Guppysnail]

I was greeted this morning with a second peace lily flower. Even though Calathea was never really happy in the Pygmy tank the peace lily is loving it. None of the peace Lilys in the other tanks have flowered. 
There must have been a wild party in the Magical Mystery tank last night. My egg clutch looked smooshed and either run over or munched on. there re a few on the side that look possibly viable still  The Xmas moss “carpet” looked more like a pillow fight. 
so I rethought hatching and raising snail babies in that tank.  It only 10 gallons and hosts shrimp, CPD, bladder snails and 6 magenta snails. @Chick-In-Of-TheSea Got me thinking with snail babies digging. I put a ugf in that tank a month or two ago and the gravel is not a thick layer. I often find bladder snails in the uptake tubes and under the plate on tank I can see the bottom. I’m concerned the babies will dig under. So off to the funny tank with the shrimp and hopefully a baby sibling for Duke.  I need to make a lid. 

HAPPY ADVENTURES…TRY SOMETHING NEW 

[Guppysnail]

So I finished rounding out the musical entourage. 37 in total.  A few days ago I picked up three more little tiger ones at the small local pet shop. They went in with The Beach Boys. They always add new members to keep the band going decades longer than natural 🤣 I took a pic…apparently my finger was halfway over the lens. 🤪

Today I got 15 more from big box.  I got home and there were 16 ?? One with very bad pitting I had not picked out so he hitched a ride. I’ll coddle him. Hopefully the remainder of his time is pleasant and filled with yummies. These guys get full QT. I’ve gotten to know the girl and she told me a piece of the filter system is broken waiting on parts so fish are struggling. It’s good to get to know folks. Even big box people.

If I ever have to do windows again I’m calling a union meeting and we will be renegotiating the contract!

Meet the Village People….we all had that momentary lapse of reason with disco 🤣

Edited July 7, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Applies to nerites too, but because they are smaller they are a little trickier to work with.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

There is a spot that looks pitted the entire way through 😢. I’m going to give him time to settle in the look under magnification.  If it’s not the entire way through I will look to repair it. But if it’s through already that will only trap bacteria and possibly harm him further. It sad because he is so active already and has wonderful shell markings. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/7/2022 at 12:57 PM, Guppysnail said:

There is a spot that looks pitted the entire way through 😢. I’m going to give him time to settle in the look under magnification.  If it’s not the entire way through I will look to repair it. But if it’s through already that will only trap bacteria and possibly harm him further. It sad because he is so active already and has wonderful shell markings. 

Aw. Keep us posted.  At least he is active.  

[Guppysnail]

On 7/7/2022 at 1:09 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Aw. Keep us posted.  At least he is active.  

I just watched that. I’ve not seen the gluing eggshell before. Pretty cool

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/7/2022 at 1:12 PM, Guppysnail said:

I just watched that. I’ve not seen the gluing eggshell before. Pretty cool

Also sometimes she uses a glass "snail file" if the front edge of their shell is broken/jagged. She has to make sure they tuck in real good so she can do it.  hehe

Edited July 7, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

Hubby met the new kids. He said emphatically “NO WAY, NO DISCO! You ought to name the one with the crack Ziggy”

So here is the bands re-release under their new name. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

I AM A JERK!

I really did not think that panda egg hatched. I’m still not certain it did. I found this guy to big to only be a few days old. Must have been one of the other eggs I hatched. I just put Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in there to QT because I thought only shrimp were there. 
Cross your fingers for this little one 🤞🏻

Edited July 7, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Atitagain]

🤞

 

[Guppysnail]

New Gang. I posted an id thread as these were marked pagoda but obviously not. Latest theory is JTS or spixie. It doesn’t matter which I just think their little faces are so adorable 🥰 

They are in Nemo’s tank with Dusty, Janis and Bobby. 
 

Left to right

Freddy Mercury (tiny baby) Mary Prankster and Niccolo Paganini

[Atitagain]

You always get such great action shots of your snails. They looking great! 

[Guppysnail]

@Atitagain it’s easy to do.  I just stare at them for an hour or more at a time. Eventually the do something 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/10/2022 at 5:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

New Gang.

They are so cool. 👍